St. Patrick-St. Vincent High boys basketball state title win is year’s top local sports moment

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The St. Patrick-St. Vincent High boys basketball team celebrates after winning the state championship against Helix. It was the Bruins’ first state title for boys basketball in school history. - Joel Rosenbaum — The Reporter

St. Patrick-St. Vincent’s Tavian Henderson pulls down a rebound in traffic during the first quarter of the Bruins’ state title victory over Helix. - Joel Rosenbaum — The Reporter

March didn’t begin very well for the St. Patrick-St. Vincent High boys basketball team.

After winning its first two North Coast Section Division IV playoff games, the Bruins coasted to a 22-5 lead at home over Lick Wilmerding in the semifinals on the first day of the month. Nearly two hours later, however, the Bruins would be stunned as they lost 71-68 in an overtime thriller.

Following the loss, the Bruins’ locker room was as silent as a library during finals week. But make no mistake, St. Pat’s wasn’t sad.

The Bruins were angry. Very angry.

“In a way, we needed that as a team,” then-senior Tavian Henderson said. “We kind of used that loss as fuel for the rest of the season.”

And despite the Bruins being eliminated from the section playoffs, their season was still alive for the bigger goal, the state playoffs.

“After the first game against Lick Wilmerding (the loss), we all had the attitude that we could never let the foot off the gas,” said Henderson.

In fact, the Bruins kept their foot on the gas pedal more than Sandra Bullock in the film, “Speed.” They won their next five games by an average of 32 points, including a rematch win in the state quarterfinals on the road against Lick-Wilmerding, 73-55.

But the most satisfying win of them all came on March 25, when St. Pat’s won the CIF State Division IV championship at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento against Helix of La Mesa 59-46.

The state title came just three months after the football team also won a state title. Like the football team in 2016, the basketball team is the winner of the Times-Herald’s local sports story of the year.

“It was an incredible game; I couldn’t be happier for these kids next to me,” said a beaming Derek Walker last March. “We went through a lot this season and we could have easily been broken, but I have a tough group of kids and they persevered through some good and some bad. I was most proud that they stayed together, fought together, won together, lost together. … They just had a moment they’ll never forget the rest of their lives.”

St. Pat’s was led by star players such as Henderson, BJ Standley, Marquel Johnson and Romeo Mays as well as a superb supporting cast of role players coming off the bench.

During the regular season, Standley had one of the biggest moments as he hit a game-winning 3-pointer in the final seconds to beat rival Salesian. The basket was made after he nearly fell out of bounds while fumbling the ball.

“I figured when I fumbled it, there were about three or four seconds left so I caught it, I looked at the basket and got a shot off,” Standley said in February.

It wouldn’t be the last time Standley would come through for the Bruins.

In the state title win against Helix, Standley scored a game-high 16 points. Henderson had 12 points and 10 rebounds in the game, while Johnson and Mays each scored 12 points of their own.

Despite the 13-point win, the Bruins trailed by a point at halftime after shooting just 8-of-30 from the field in the first half.

Henderson, now playing college basketball at St. Martin’s in Washington with Standley, reflected Friday night on the mood of the Bruins in the locker room during halftime.

“We weren’t panicked,” Henderson said. “We had a game plan and we had to stick to it. Obviously shots began to fall for us, but we also were getting to the free throw line a lot more in the second half.”

Henderson shot 5-of-6 from the charity stripe in the game and a 25-7 run in the third quarter gave the Bruins a big lead they would not lose.

When the final horn sounded, Henderson and Standley embraced, while the rest of the team celebrated its state-title win.

“What I remember the most from that team is how together we were and how badly we wanted to win that game and how we would do anything we could to win it,” Henderson said. “It felt great to win it. It was like all the hard work had paid off. It was unbelievable.”

Been working at the Times-Herald full time since early 2011, was a stringer from 2001-2004 while in college at San Francisco State where I studied Journalism. Have worked as a copy editor and sportswriter since 2011. Fan of Dodgers, Angels, Lakers, Kings and Raiders.